Platinum Equity takes majority stake in Trime

21 Invest signed an agreement in October 2026 to sell a majority stake in Trime to Platinum Equity, four years after acquiring the company. Founder and chairman Andrea Fontanella, chief executive Paolo Tacconi and other managers reinvested alongside the new owner. Completion was expected by early 2027, subject to customary conditions and regulatory approvals, with debt financing provided by Intesa Sanpaolo, UniCredit, BPER Banca, Crédit Agricole, BNL BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank. Based at Cassinetta di Lugagnano near Milan, Trime builds the equipment that works where there is no mains power. Its lighting towers are trailers carrying masts that raise floodlights over a worksite; its generators supply the electricity; and its security towers carry cameras and sensors watching sites and remote areas out of hours. They are used on construction sites, road and rail projects, in tunnels and mines, at events and in emergency response. It manufactures at four plants in Italy and sells in more than 30 countries, with its own subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the United States and Australia, employing over 300 people and generating revenue of €150m, more than 90% of it outside Italy. Most of its equipment is bought not by the contractors who use it but by rental companies, which hire it out by the day. Those buyers judge a machine on running cost and reliability, and the shift from diesel to hybrid, battery and solar models has become the company’s main point of difference: its green range cuts consumption and emissions by up to 90%, which matters on sites where fuel must be delivered by road and where emissions limits apply. Under 21 Invest, revenue had grown from 80 million euros in 2021 and EBITDA had more than doubled, while headcount rose from around 200. American sales went from 9 million euros in 2021 to about 34 million expected in 2026, the Netherlands became a significant market, and the 2024 purchase of a majority stake in PR Power, its Australian distributor, consolidated its position in the Pacific. Platinum Equity has invested in equipment rental for nearly two decades, having owned BlueLine Rental, sold to United Rentals for around 2.1 billion dollars, Maxim Crane Works and NESCO, and holding Custom Truck One Source and Electro Rent. It intended to use those relationships to win a larger share of American rental fleets, widen the generator range and fund production capacity, sales coverage, warehousing and spare parts in the United States. William Blair advised 21 Invest, with Hogan Lovells Cadwalader as legal counsel and BCG, KPMG and ERM on vendor due diligence. Clearwater advised Platinum Equity on the M&A and the debt, with Legance as legal counsel, Alvarez & Marsal, Ducker Carlisle, Efeso and TRC on due diligence and EY and FRM on tax. Artha Corporate Finance Advisory and Deloitte Legal advised the minority shareholders and management.

It is worth noting that the fund 21 Invest took control of Trime through an LBO in 2022.